" I didn’t want people who sit around and complain, " said Constance Jordan about her criteria for post-retirement group activities.
She retired in 1983 from Framingham State College. She had attended as an undergraduate during the Great Depression, majoring in food and nutrition with minors in biochemistry and anthropology. Because it was then a teachers’ college, " I had to learn to be a teacher, " she said. Her first job included teaching student nurses and she found she loved teaching. Later, she left hospital work and earned a master’s degree. " Then I decided what I really wanted to do was college teaching. " She taught university for a while before continuing her education with a doctor’s degree. Then she returned to Framingham State and worked as a teacher, a department head, and the dean of the first graduate program.
When she retired, friends urged her to get involved with Elderhostel, a not-for-profit organization that offers educational travel programs in, now, more than 90 countries around the world and in every U.S. state. " The first program I did was in Vermont in winter, and it included cross country skiing. I said, ‘If the people up there are going skiing, they’re gonna be people that are active,’ " said Jordan.
She since participated in many Elderhostel programs. " I loved it. And I was always talking to people about it. " So she became an ambassador with its New England speakers’ bureau. The avocation shows in when she talks about the organization.
" It’s for: elders. And the concept is, like youth hostels, this is Elderhostel, " Jordan said. " Their focus is education. It’s not strictly travel; you don’t every day run to a new place. "
" I love these programs because I learn and I get to know the people of the area and the culture of the area, " she said. " In Denmark we had Danish ladies and men living with us. " In Russia their group of about 30 split into groups of four to spend a night with Russian families.
Jordan volunteered to host an Elderhostel program in Boston. " I had fun telling them how to get around Boston, " she said. She stayed at the hotel with the program’s participants. " I was the contact person in case they had a problem. You’re dealing with older people, " she said. " You have to know what to do if somebody has an illness. "
She also helps operate the gift shop at Leonard Morse. " The hospital is for-profit now, " she said, " but the Leonard Morse Auxiliary always has and still does staff and run the gift shop. " They can’t give the money raised to the hospital anymore, but instead the Auxiliary donates to community organizations. " One of the places that has needed money has been the Natick VNA, because they give a lot of free care, " Jordan said.
And she is active in Natick Service Council. " I help with its special activities, " she said, which include food drives at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.
At St. Patrick’s Church, she helps clean the altars and is a eucharistic minister. " I go to the home-bound people that can’t come to church, " she said. " I have three people that are elderly and can’t come to church. And I go to them, every few weeks. "
She is not a person to sit around and complain.
by Benjamin Melançon
